Despite the late hour, I couldn’t fall asleep. There was this feeling that crept over me that was hard to describe. I was sensing some impending doom, like anxiety for a test I hadn’t prepared for, or that these moments with Archer that were so amazing were about to come to an end without warning. I tried to calm myself by thinking about Archer, but that only compounded my anxiety even more. I tried to shake the feeling, but then memories flashed before me: the eyes glowing brightly after our first passionate kiss, the eerie photo from long ago, the ridiculous rules made by someone else…
There was Archer, staring at me, his eerie eyes shining brightly with love. Thunder boomed. There were a bunch of crazy images flittering by repeatedly: a knife covered in blood; thunder booming, rattling my bedroom balcony doors; Archer screaming, and fire, smoke. I saw them again and again until I couldn’t handle it.
I grabbed my head to stop them, but two hands grasped mine. Archer was terrified and upset. “You should’ve stayed in the dark,” he lamented. Then I saw Aroha, Lucien, some stranger…and the Grim Reaper in a black cloak. The figure came flying at me.
I woke up before the dream could go on any further. The sun shone through my window, announcing a new day. The brightness of my room contrasted with the dark mood of my dream. One thing was for sure: I was glad I wasn’t psychic because if I were, the dream showed it was likely someone would die. The dream seemed to point to me.
Chapter 13Archer
Just as I feared, the clash of my old world with my new one began to get more complex. Yes, they admitted it: the Charities had been sent by Zeus to babysit me, to protect me from myself while Aroha was gone. Only, Zeus hadn’t planned on them becoming as smitten with Callie as I was. Ada, Thalia, and even the more down-to-earth Belle went from watching me to letting me have my own way. They were “quite taken in by her,” “absolutely besotted,” and “adored her eternally.”
It seemed clear that Zeus couldn’t stop me from being with Callie. No more messages came, so my confidence grew daily—until the yearbook debacle. Callie started asking questions. I smuggled that yearbook out of school by sliding it into my bookbag at immortal speed. When I got home, I went up onto the roof and torched it. So stupid. We never take photos, but Aroha had been dying for one back when they were still a novelty, and she was the one who’d insisted on coming back to NY now, just over a century later. What were the odds anyone would see an obscure old yearbook? It was ridiculous and virtually impossible, and yet Callie somehow found it. The Fates were against me. How much longer could I pull off the lies? The worst part was, I didn’t want to. I was tired of hiding part of myself from the woman I loved, yet her finding out who I was could give Zeus reason to hurt her.
I was walking past the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Forty-sixth Street, holding Callie’s hand while the retinue of the Charities, Linda, and Dan roamed ahead of us. We were merely window shopping, only going inside when the Charities burst out with squeals that they needed one item or another, which was often. Dan doggedly followed, carrying all their bags. I was a bit annoyed that Callie had even invited him, but he was safely in love with Aroha and naturally infatuated with the Charities.
“Are you okay?” Callie asked me.
I nodded.
She sighed.
Damn it. I wish she’d stop prying, as she had promised me. Pointing out that promise would make her even more suspicious, though.
“Hey, Belle!” Callie called, waving around her phone. “Can you take a pic of Archer and me?” Callie asked in such a way that made me realize she was suspicious and expectant that we would deny taking a photo. It irked me that she somehow concluded the truth.
Belle hesitated. We were to be in photos sparingly ever since Dionysus became a famous actor in the 1920s and was later recognized in the 1950s after his “death.” Zeus had several gods busy destroying evidence and memories of our existence. Evidence much like the artifacts in the Sycheses’ apartment.
Callie was suspicious, and a photo would put her at ease. A few photos here and there would do no harm. I could destroy them later if necessary, although the thought of erasing Callie and our time together made me feel ill.
I gave Belle a nod, and she took the phone, snapped a photo, and gave it back. Callie viewed the photo and showed it to me. We looked good together, just as we did the day I met her, seeing the reflection of us in the elevator doors.
With that hiccup gone, I thought all would be well, but then I spotted him across the street: Anteros, the avenger of slighted love, my enemy and, unfortunately, my half-brother. He glowered at me across the crowd, unmoving as mortals bumped into his shoulders like waves breaking around a steadfast rock. Before I could wonder why in Zeus’s name he was here, Anteros raised his hand, his finger pointed like a gun. He aimed it at Callie, and he pulled the imaginary trigger. He then met my glare with a smirk and blew on his fingertip. He was here about Callie, and I didn’t like his threats.
I gave him a glare as we walked on, and he nodded down the street ahead of us to where I noticed another familiar face. It was the other family outcast, my half-brother Himerus, god of lust and longing. I was sure Hymenaios, one of Lucien’s immortal sons, was somewhere close by. The three of them were inseparable. The entire love retinue was in New York—save my mother, the one who could pull rank on all of us. Great.
This could be a problem of catastrophic proportions. Anteros could stand in as my double, almost identical, but with hazel eyes and poker-straight sandy-brown hair. He was a good three inches shorter than me too. Ma called him her “sullied Eros.” Hymenaios was problematic as well. He was the god of the wedding feast, and now he had taken over Hera’s role as the guardian of marriages since she was too lazy to do her job. The dilemma was the fact he looked a whole lot like Lucien but a softer version—paler, thinner, without as much muscle tone. Himerus was much safer as he had our dad’s darker eyes and hair, was extremely tall, and took more after his mother—if Ma’s jealous rantings in the past had merit.
And here they were in NY, ready to threaten my entire world again, this time through exposure. I let go of Callie’s hand and tapped Thalia on the shoulder. When she turned, I nodded in Anteros’s direction. She was genuinely as surprised as I, so the girls hadn’t known about this.
“Take care of it,” I said quietly to her.
She nodded, skipped over to Belle, and grabbed her arm. “Oooo! Belle, look at that dress! It is absolutely fabulous!” She pulled Belle along with her. “Go on, guys. We’ll meet you at home.” They skipped across the street and disappeared into the crowd.
Nervous, expecting a full-on ambush, I clasped Callie’s hand, futilely hoping the act might protect her from them. They might jump out and attack us at any moment.
Twenty minutes later, safe at Callie’s apartment, I received a text from Thalia: Meet them at the Grapevine around 9. Just curious.
I had to look up the place, and as I assumed, it was a bar. It was a good fifty blocks from my apartment. Meeting them a distance away from Callie was a good thing.
It was almost impossible to get away from Callie. She sensed I wanted to give her the slip, but that night, I met the three stooges at the Grapevine, Belle going with me for moral support. I was glad to have a friend with me, yet I couldn’t help but reflect that Lucien would have been best in the present situation. His son was always in awe of him, striving for Lucien’s approval. He would have been easily persuadable if Lucien were with me, and my brothers would’ve followed in kind. Ma would’ve been great too. They were scared of her. Zeus took her from me and sent six—seven counting Hermes—immortals; this was a major threat from the god of gods.
I told myself, like a mantra over and over, that at least I wasn’t alone. I was a legitimate son. I had nothing to be scared of. Except they had Callie’s life in their hands and could easily enlighten her to our existence, and then Zeus could smite her. I shook off the horrid thought.
They were sitting in the back corner of the bar in a booth
, staring out. The bar was a dilapidated hole-in-the-wall and was full of shady mortals. It appeared to be a formerly posh wine bar that hadn’t been renovated or even cleaned since the early 1980s. It smelled of musty spilled wine—rotten grapes with a sour hint of vomit.
I stood in front of them with Belle at my side, not making a move to sit.
“Eros,” Himerus sneered as a greeting, as his eyes undressed Belle.
“Himerus, Anteros, Hymenaios,” I greeted, trying to remain neutral and relaxed in tone. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“Pleasure? I wouldn’t go that far, Bruv,” Anteros said sullenly. I tried not to flinch at his slang use of the word “brother.” He did it merely to annoy me because we were never close or acted like brothers.
Annoyed, Hymenaios elbowed Anteros and said, “Please, Eros, Aglaea, sit.” I had forgotten how melodic his voice was; he was the child of music, it being the very thing that had brought Lucien and Euterpe together.
I silently obeyed, sitting closest to Hymenaios, feeling that he was the one I was least likely to throttle. Belle slipped in next to Anteros, while the lustful bawd Himerus eyed her up. He was hopeless when it came to decency.
“Holy Hephaestus! You get prettier every time I see you,” Himerus blurted out to Aglaea.
“You say that every time I see you,” she complained.
“Cut to the chase,” I told them, trying to hide my nervousness. “Why are you here?”
Someone came to the table with five drinks.
“Relax, Bruv, have a drink,” Anteros forced a smile.
“I’d rather not.”
“Go on, lad.” The bartender patted my back roughly. I peered at the face of, not an ordinary bartender, but Dionysus himself. “Nectar. Seventeen-hundreds stock. Not bad stuff.”
“Uncle D.” I shook his hand.
He examined me thoroughly. He and my dad were never on good terms. That’s the problem with being an Olympian: we were as dysfunctional as beings could get. “How’s your old man?”
“How in Tartarus would I know? Haven’t seen him in ages.” I shrugged.
This made Dionysus smile widely as he patted my back again. “Your mother?”
“She’s here in New York. Well, away at the moment, but she lives here.”
“Tell her to stop on by.” He still eyed me suspiciously. I wondered if he was here to spy on me. It was doubtful since the place must’ve been there for more than thirty years. Had Dionysus been in Manhattan all along, and I had never run into him in the last four years?
“I will.”
“You guys behave,” he warned, walking back to the bar.
I took a big swig of the sweet nectar. Feeling everything was instantaneously perfect, I relaxed a bit. Nectar does that—burns away every bad feeling and thought, making you happier than ever, like liquid euphoria. It’s actually quite good for us, like vitamins or medicine when we are weakened. Aroha drank it daily to keep up her beauty.
Hymenaios sighed and stared at me with the same honest eyes Lucien had. “We were curious about the mortal girl. Zeus is pretty angry, and we just had to see her.”
“I’d say she’s worth it all.” Himerus’s eyes bored into mine. “Is she?”
I almost stood up to throttle him, but instead, my legs hit the table. Belle threw her hands out to keep the table front toppling over, and Hymenaios gently forced me back down. Dionysus shot us a glare, and a few mortals eyed us suspiciously.
“Ooo.” Anteros laughed mockingly. “Love has fallen in love.”
I tried to keep my temper under control, but I must’ve been turning red, for Himerus chided me, “Tsk. Tsk. Dad’s temper is rising.”
“You’ve seen her. Can you go now?”
“Where’s the civility, Bruv?” Anteros challenged.
“If she sees you, she’ll know something’s up, and Zeus might destroy her. The same for you, Hymenaios. She’s well acquainted with your father.” I purposely brought up Lucien.
“My…my dad’s here?” His eyes widened, and his mouth twitched into a small grin. The seed of doubt in whatever their plan had been was now planted.
“It would be a shame to have Zeus kill something so…beautiful.” Himerus had paused, most likely searching his vocabulary for an appropriate word. More doubt. Whatever plans they had were crumbling.
“I could just avenge Emily’s slighted love,” Anteros hissed.
“Like you could make Eros love someone,” Belle scoffed at his lack of powers.
“I could make his little prize love—what was that mortal’s name? Dan?—or any other mortal who pines futilely after her.”
“It won’t work,” I told him. I wasn’t quite sure if that was true, though. That was another issue. Like I could, Anteros could see who each mortal loved, but he could only make slighted victims be loved by the one who had forsaken or spurned them. I didn’t think his “arrows” could defeat mine, and Dan loved Ma.
“Are you so sure?” Anteros shot out.
“Try if you must.” I faked bravado. “This is why Zeus sent you anyway, isn’t it? A little mission for you to try to please him.” The guilty expressions on their faces told me I had guessed their true motives. I was no longer afraid, though. It wasn’t just the nectar making me confident; it was a fact. Callie would always love me, and if Anteros somehow changed that, I’d win her back.
“Better not be too confident,” Himerus sneered.
“Yeah, or I’ll end up with another brother,” I shot back.
The two of them scowled at me, tensing up. Zeus had made them immortal when I was a boy to try to keep my only-child syndrome in check. I hardly warranted it. I hadn’t been spoiled, but overconfident as a kid because I had been one of the few gods to develop my powers soon after birth, when most immortals went through a rocky power-gaining stage during puberty, some not having powers until eighteen even.
“Look, why can’t you boys all just swallow your egos and get along for once,” Belle interjected. “The jig is up. Zeus sent you for some purpose. He sent us, too, for intel, but the truth is, we all like her, a lot. I, and my sisters, support Eros and this girl. There is nothing scary or troublesome about her. I don’t understand why he’s all upset that Archer chose her. I honestly think he should make her immortal. If you’d only just talk to her, you’d see how wonderfully charming she is.”
I put my hand up to stop Belle. “Don’t take Aglaea the wrong way, guys. I’m not going to ask Zeus to make her immortal. He’d never… The most important issue here is keeping her safe, which means ignorant of what we are. That last thing I want to do is give Zeus a reason to smite her.”
I was pleading with them. I was taking a chance here, a big gamble. I was counting on the hope they wanted my respect rather than to avenge their feelings of jealousy due to being unloved and unwanted. The trio studied me intently and then looked at one another in turn. With them, most likely, I was on trial, awaiting the verdict.
“Are you so confident she won’t love another if I try to make her?” Anteros was wavering.
“Yes.” And if not, I’d bind her to me.
“Well then, I’ll do it to please Zeus, but if it doesn’t work, he’ll be even more angry,” Anteros said.
“It’s nothing against you. We just don’t want to get in trouble,” Himerus added.
“I understand.”
“Or”—Anteros smiled mischievously—“we could always make sport of it, like the old days.”
I smiled, despite the gravity of the situation, recalling the days when we were highly competitive about our abilities. There had been a time we got along, in a sort of sibling rivalry type of way, but it hadn’t lasted long.
“A race?” Himerus smiled broadly.
“Well, you can’t be seen,” Belle said.
“Rooftops?” Anteros grinned wickedly.
“If I win?” I asked.
“I do nothing, and we leave immediately. But if I win, I make her slight you. If Himerus wins—”
&
nbsp; “I get her,” Himerus cut in.
Anteros gave him a chiding glance and continued on, “Himerus makes her lust for a mortal.”
Himerus growled in defeat, and I cringed as I thought of Callie having those kinds of feelings for anyone else. I was beginning to get worried about this, but if I didn’t play their little game, they’d follow Zeus’s orders. In the end, I really had nothing to lose.
“Deal.”
Anteros and I shook on it.
“First one to Callie’s front door wins,” Himerus officiated.
I gave him a leveled look. That would defeat the purpose. I didn’t want her to see them.
“We won’t knock or bother her or anything,” Anteros conceded.
“I will tell you when to start,” Belle added, stopping the others from jumping up at that exact moment.
We all stood up, and my brothers eyed the drinks, then me. Great, they were mooching off me. I rolled my eyes and threw down a few twenties for Uncle D, and we left the Grapevine, entering the chilly night air. We walked in silence a couple doors down until we reached the perfect spot, an alley out of the way of prying mortal eyes.
“This ought to be interesting,” Hymenaios scoffed. “Archer always wins.”
“Yes, but how long has he been mortalling? How long has it been since he stretched those immortal limbs? Bit rusty, eh, Bruv?” Anteros mocked.
“You wish,” I retorted, feigning confidence. Was he right in a way? It had been a few years since I’d pushed my body to immortal limits.
“Shut your traps!” Belle smirked, lining us up in the empty alley. “Ready, steady.” She paused for dramatic effect. “GO!”
I “flew.” No, I don’t have wings, but it was probably the easiest way for the Greeks to explain how I was able to momentarily defy gravity. Using my unique ability, I had jumped as high as I could but barely caught the roof’s ledge under my arms. I had misjudged, being, as Anteros predicted, a bit rusty. Anteros landed on top of the building, stumbling a little and laughing at me as he began to run across the rooftop. As my opposite, he embodied gravity, or he had magnetism—and not in reference to his personality. When he wanted to be somewhere, all he had to do was see it, and he could draw himself to it, like a pair of magnets. I wasted no time in launching myself up onto the roof as I heard Himerus struggling to climb to the top behind me. Himerus had only the normal immortal traits, but much more potently: abundant strength and speed.
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